Have you used the resources available at Kosnet? KosNet stands for Korean Language Study on the Internet. Kosnet is affiliated with the Ministry of Education and is responsible for overseas Koreans education and International exchange students.

For example, I like to dream about going to Korea for a 3 month language study at Yonsei, Sogang, or Ehwa. KOSNET has information about these and other language programs.

I took the pretest, and failed spectacularly. The pretest is all in Korean. It includes both written and audio, and reminds me of taking an SAT. I am not up for this challenge yet. In the back of my mind, I figured some day I would take TOPIK, but if this pretest is any indication of the type of exam I will have to take, I doubt I will ever have enough knowledge to take it. Reminder that I am just a lowly beginner.

To sooth my wounded pride, the preliminary information about Hangul I rocked. I had a moment of clarity when I realized the alphabetical order of the letters goes by direction. For example, I was thinking of it as

Vowels: ㅏ ㅐ ㅑ ㅒ ㅓ ㅔ ㅕ ㅖ ㅗ ㅘ ㅙ ㅚ ㅛ ㅜ ㅝ ㅞ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅢ ㅣ

but if instead you focus on just the 10 vowels, you get

Vowels: ㅏ ㅑ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ

which is like following directions on a compass: ‘ticks’ east, west, north, south. The combination vowels can be figured out from there, such as ㅘ really being ㅗ + ㅏ.

One free resource I want to use is the Korean ebooks in English.

Korean textbooks are expensive, so having these full color textbooks available is a great resource.

The free download digital textbook for children is more my speed. 139 MB zip file.

Sample of the children’s education.

Adult education includes videos and self-tests. It prefers to be run in Internet Explorer.

I know I have mentioned KOSNET before, so forgive me for repeating myself, but when it comes to different Korean resources, some things I am just not ready for as a beginner and have to shelf for later use.